There is current emphasis in providing safety features for lighters, particularly to prevent actuation of the lighters by children. Many such child safety lighters have focused on preventing depression of the thumb pad of the valve actuator lever. In most conventional lighters, the thumb pad is mounted on one end of a pivotal lever having its opposite end in engagement with a valve for displacing the valve between valve-open and valve-closed positions. In the valve-open position, of course, fuel from the lighter's fuel reservoir is supplied to an ignition region where a spark ignites the fuel and, hence, the lighter. On those conventional child safety lighters, locking mechanisms are typically provided to prevent depression of the lever by thumb pressure on the thumb pad unless and until a safety latch is displaced. In those lighters, once the safety latch is moved to the unlocked position, the lighter is enabled for actuation by thumb pressure on the thumb pad. Actuation of the lighter by a child is thus much more difficult because of the necessity to manipulate the safety latch into its unlocked position prior to depressing the thumb pad. This complicates lighter actuation, presumably beyond the child's capability.
Other types of child safety lighters have incorporated slip wheels astride the spark wheel, preventing rotation of the spark wheel and the generation of a spark absent sufficient pressure on the slip wheels and spark wheel. Typically, the slip wheel serves as a mechanical barrier, preventing a child's thumb access to the spark wheel, with the slip wheels freely rotating relative to the spark wheel, effectively preventing generation of a spark by rotation of the spark wheel. This type of child safety lighter is particularly effective should the child rub the slip wheel along a surface which results only in free-wheeling rotation of the slip wheels and not rotation of the spark wheel.